


Puppy Love

by nix1327



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Detective Percival Graves, First Meetings, Fluff, Healing Percival Graves, I'm Bad At Summaries, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 07:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14015295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nix1327/pseuds/nix1327
Summary: “Theseus Scamander. Sorry to bump into you like that, I just wanted to be able to say I’ve been touched by an angel.”Percival Graves finds a puppy. He also meets Theseus Scamander for the first time.





	Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

> This didn't really turn out how I wanted it to but, oh well. I guess that's what happens when you have a certificate in procrastination and then you remember you have midterms coming up.

“You’ve been through a lot in the past couple months, Percival. It’s alright to be struggling with things, normal even.” 

He’s not looking at her, his eyes are trained on the loose thread in the carpet. The silence stretches out between them. 

“It’s okay to let people help yo-”

“I’m fine.” 

His response is clipped, eyes raising to meet hers. His shrink sighs. It’s a long, tired thing. Frustration and pity and maybe a little bit of resignation all being released along with her breath.

“It’s been three weeks, Percival. You keep telling me you’re fine but your actions say otherwise. Dr. Murphy and I cleared you for work because you begged us to. Seraphina asked us to. People tell me you’re constantly in the gym, beating the life out of the punching bags. You come in at ungodly hours and leave well into the night. In the past week you’ve gotten into fist fights with numerous criminals and even several people that work at the department. I cannot, in good conscious, let you continue to work if you’re going to keep up these violent and unhealthy tendencies.”

Graves says nothing. The glare he levels back at the carpet says enough.

“Listen. Percival. You can’t keep pushing your emotions away. You don’t want to talk to me, that’s fine. But you need to talk to someone, anyone. I know you think you can do this by yourself but you can’t.”

“Are we done?”

She looks at him for a long moment before shaking her head. 

“I mean it, Graves. Don’t let this one thing define the rest of your life. Remember that there’s more to living than beer and work. You will get through this.”

He narrows his eyes at her before setting his mouth into a thin line.

“Are we done?”

Another tired sigh.

“Go.”

*****

Graves walks home from work the next day. The leaves are starting to fall from the trees and the wind is biting, but he walks nonetheless. It helps him clear his mind. It helps him let go of his anger, if only for a moment.

He’s passing an alleyway when a chill runs through him. He pulls up his collar and shoves his hands into his pockets. The wind brings with it a faint noise and he stops to investigate, turning into a grubby alleyway and looking around. The sad whimpering continues and Graves tracks it to an upturned box in the corner of the alley. He crouches next to the box and lifts it slightly. He’s surprised when a tiny, twitching nose peeks out from under the box. A small furry head follows it.

“Hey there, little guy. What are you doing out here?” The puppy continues to whimper and Graves sighs. He knows his peaceful night of whiskey and self loathing just got a little more exciting. 

He tucks the pup into his coat and zips it up, then he heads home. 

*****

Percival lives in an apartment complex a couple miles away from the station. It’s a fairly new complex that he moved into back when he was just starting to gain a reputation at the station. 

Graves climbs several flights of stairs, not particularly fond of elevators after an unfortunate experience he’d rather not recount. His bad knee is aching when he finally gets to his door, fumbling with his keys to unlock it. He gets the door open and throws his keys into the bowl at his right before bending down to unlace his boots. 

The puppy is still tucked in his jacket, held close to his chest to give the shivering body as much warmth as possible. He unzips his coat and carries the pup around his apartment, picking up a moving box and stuffing a towel in it before setting the puppy into the box and carrying the box around instead. 

In the kitchen, he rifles through his refrigerator and then cabinets, looking for something to feed the famished pup. He finds his kitchen barely has any food fit for him and finally has to settle for making scrambled eggs. When he’s done, he pours a good portion into a bowl and sets it in the box. 

He makes sure the pup is occupied gobbling down the food before heading to the bathroom to turn on the bath faucet. Then he shuffles through the closet, finding towels and a spare comb. 

When he returns, the puppy is finished and trying to climb out of the box. The corner of Graves’ mouth turns upwards a tick as the pup tumbles back into the towels after a valiant escape attempt. He walks over to the pup and picks it up around the waist, the fluffy body scrambling in his grasp before he brings it to his chest and holds it close. 

Percival heads to the bathroom and tests the temperature before dropping the puppy into shallow water. It’s quite a production, Graves finds, washing a stray. The poor dog’s black puppy fluff is matted and filthy. It doesn’t help that the pup seems to take a liking to the water and makes a show of romping around in it. Much splashing is involved and, by the time Percival deems the puppy sufficiently clean, Percival himself is completely soaked. 

Graves dries the puppy off with a towel and deposits him back in the box before cleaning up the bathroom and changing into sweatpants and a t-shirt. By the time he settles into his bed with a couple of case files, the puppy fussing around in the box next to Percival’s bed, Graves can feel exhaustion creeping into his bones. The puppy finally settles and curls into a ball to sleep and Percival can’t help but think that looks like a very good idea. He shuts off the lights and is out before his head hits the pillow. 

*****

He travels to the vet the next day. The puppy is checked for a chip before anything else. Percival doesn’t know why he lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when no chip is found. After a thorough lookover from the vet, the pup is cleared to go. Graves takes him to the pet store and looks around before buying just the essentials. Food, collar, leash, bowls. Treats, toys, an extra fluffy, super soft, guaranteed deep sleep premium dog bed. Maybe he buys more than just the essentials. 

Dog tags are engraved with the name “Excalibur” on it and hung around the pup’s neck like fine jewelry. Cal seems to appreciate it.

Graves finds that he and Cal fall into an easy rhythm together. They wake up, go for a run (it ends up being more of a stop and smell the flowers every 3 steps). They come home, Graves takes a shower, he makes them breakfast, and then he takes the pup with him to work. 

The first time he took Cal to work with him, the pup managed to get out of Graves’ office and proceeded to wreak havoc in the investigations department. When Graves had finally managed to wrangle the wild pup in, Seraphina had already summoned the both of them to her office. 

Graves had carried Cal with him and tried his best not to flinch when Sera had thrown the chewed up and slobbered on Anderson file in front of him. Two mournful sets of puppy dog eyes and a promise later- “You better not let him loose again, Graves, or I swear to God you’ll be on desk duty for a month”- and Graves walks out with official documentation that more or less gives him clearance to bring Cal to work with him. Seraphina watches her best friend walk back to his office with a bumbling puppy chasing after him. She thinks that the smile he gave her was the first genuine smile she’s seen from him in a long, long time. 

Graves finds himself getting to work at a more decent hour and leaving on time. He finds it’s mostly Cal’s fault. The pup fills Graves’ time in the morning, and has taken to pulling the man to the dog park before evening. 

It is during one such evening, when Graves is at said dog park, that Theseus Scamander crashes into his life. Quite literally.

“I am so sorry, mate. I should’ve been watching where I was going. My dog, Dougal, he doesn’t much like it when I call him to go home.” Percival shoots out a hand to steady himself and gets ready to tell the bumbling idiot off. The first thing he sees when he raises his head is blue-green eyes. Ginger hair. He sees freckles and a sheepish smile that makes his stomach flip. 

“It’s no problem at all…” It is a rare time indeed when the great Percival Graves finds himself at a loss for words. He supposes he’ll blame the Brit’s pretty blues on that. The man gives Percival a smile that’s all flashing white teeth and charm before sticking out his hand.

“Theseus Scamander. Sorry to bump into you like that, I just wanted to be able to say I’ve been touched by an angel.” 

Needless to say, Percival barely resists the urge to deck the man.

What follows is a tentative friendship between the two. Percival finds himself looking forward to taking Cal to the dog park everyday. Theseus’ easygoing nature and charming smile is a welcome reprieve from the subordinates constantly walking on eggshells around him and the guilty looks he receives wherever he goes. 

Percival gets to know Theseus well in the evenings they spend together. He knows that Dougal, the adorable Corgi Theseus is watching for his brother, has a tendency to disappear once in a while. Percival spends a couple nights helping Theseus track down the little dog. 

Graves knows that Theseus, like himself, is a war vet. He was deployed to Iraq back in 2003. He works as a reporter now, teaches self defense classes in his free time. 

As Graves gets to know Theseus as the months go on, he finds he opens up about himself. He tells Theseus that he works for the NYPD. He tells him about how work sometimes feels like babysitting a bunch of children. He tells him about how he found Cal in an alley one night. He tells him about his parents’ fascination with the Knights of the Round Table. One day Graves tells him he might be falling in love with him. 

“I think I began falling in love with you the first day we met, Percival Graves.”

Percival is a long way from healed, but he thinks, with Theseus and Cal, he’ll be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Possibly the most abrupt ending I've ever seen so sorry for that.  
> Comments & Kudos appreciated. Thank you all for reading <3


End file.
